Day 29 – Marmaris, Rhodes

In the morning we take the opportunity to catch up with blogging and email. Later we walk around to the marina and have lunch, which is the best meal we have had for a long time.

Attempting to locate the port in the absence of any signage we take a wrong turn and end up slightly late for check-in at 1500. Not that it matters, as we sit and wait in covered, external seating area for the ticket office to open at 1530. Once we have our boarding pass we wait until 1550 for security and immigration to open. We are then held in the duty free shop (which has no seating) for 40 minutes before eventually boarding. There is no explanation for the 55 minutes delay but a local tells me this is fairly typical.

Fortunately the crossing is only an hour, as we are cooped up in a strange, small boat without much view through the mean, heavily tinted, salt-encrusted portholes. Moreover Turkish transport entertainment plumbs new depths, with the Showgirl Kylie broadcast fortunately barely audible over the labouring engine.

We get a little lost hunting for our accommodation but it’s a good introduction compact, historic Rhodes Town. It’s a little quieter than we envisaged but there’s a relaxed vibe and we enjoy another good meal.

Day 28 – Büyükkonuk, Kyrenia, Alanya, Antalya, Marmaris

Today is the weak link in our meticulous itinerary. We need to arrive at Marmaris port by 1500 tomorrow for the ferry to Rhodes. We were unable to book the coach travel across southwest Turkey online and, since we were therefore unsure how far we would get, we didn’t book any accommodation either.

After enjoying another tasty breakfast at Lois and Ismail’s we are a little late departing Büyükkonuk but we arrive in Kyrenia in plenty of time for the ferry. We can return the hire car by leaving it at the port, unlocked with the key under the rubber mat in driver’s footwell, a common practice in these parts apparently.

Having collected the tickets and paid the port tax we wait in the departure lounge for a while and then pass through security, pay another mystery tax, and have our passports inspected. The catamaran departs on time and though the sea appears calm it’s a bouncy crossing and we arrive an hour late.

 

After a quick trip to a cashpoint we take a taxi to the otogar, where we establish that the only bus going to Antalya leaves in eight minutes. We buy tickets and provisions and the smart Mercedes coach departs on time. We are forced to endure more Turkish television, some kind of Jurassic Park spoof this time it seems.

The reason the 130 km journey is scheduled to take two hours soon becomes apparent as we crawl along the free-flowing dual carriageways, the driver repeatedly hooting to announce his presence and collecting passengers at random locations en route.

Shortly after 1730 the coach arrives at the impressive Antalya bus station. There’s an information point with friendly and apparently impartial advice. We are shown which sales desk to go to, where we discover we are in luck: there’s a coach at 1830 going all the way through to Marmaris, albeit not arriving until 0030. We have time to buy provisions and to book a hotel online.

It’s another well-appointed Mercedes coach, complete with free wi-fi. We climb slowly out of Antalya in to a spectacular mountain landscape. The shadows gradually lengthen and it falls dark. I fatefully remark on the lack of television. At a 25 minute refreshment break we enjoy the 17 °C mountain air, the coolest we have experienced since leaving the UK.

After a brief stop in Fethiye we continue to Marmaris, arriving early. We take a taxi to the hotel. The driver is the nicest so far, speaking good English and being very helpful. He asks what we’re up to and, just when we are expecting an offer to collect us and take us to the port tomorrow, he tells us we can easily hail one in the street outside the hotel or better still just walk, and he explains the back route through the marina.

We weren’t expecting to make it all the way through to Marmaris, so we’re very pleased at the prospect of a relaxing day tomorrow. The only downside has been passing through Anlanya so quickly we miss what is reputed to be the only brewpub in Turkey.

Day 7 – Adana, Antakya, Aleppo

In a minibus to the Otogar (main bus station, literally “auto garage”)

At the Otogar lots of people are keen for our business. There is no departures board or anything vaguely resembling one, which is ideal for the hawkers. We pass straight through the building to the buses, where there is no hassle because it is assumed we have tickets. We wander around briefly and find a bus departing in two minutes, at 1130. The three hour journey to Antakya skirts around the northeast corner of the Mediterranean before heading inland over a mountain pass offering spectacular views.

 

France ceded the region around Antakya and Iskenderun to encourage Turkey’s neutrality in the Second World War. We later noticed that the present international boundary is described as temporary on Syrian maps.

At Antakya we find that there is one more bus to Aleppo today, departing at 1530, which leaves time for a kebab before we depart. After an hour we reach the border. It takes another hour to complete the formalities, and at 1830 we arrive in Aleppo.

We are staying at the Baron Hotel, which is charming but has seen better days, when guests included TE Lawrence, Agatha Christie and various royalty.

After checking in we go for a walk to try to get our bearings but wander around the lively compact streets for hours and end up somewhat lost and hungry. Eventually we spot fairly smart restaurant in a recently renovated, historic building and enjoy a very good meal for S£ 640 (£ 8.25).

Afterwards we get chatting to the owner, Kamal Kabbani, a local entrepreneur who has also lived in the UK, Middle East and Ukraine. He says that water is a significant issue but that are no regulations, and neither is it a major expense; the cost of water for businesses starts at S£ 1.5 (1.9 p) per litre. However the fact he knows is a good indicator of public awareness; I doubt most UK restaurant owners would know what they pay.

Later he insists on taking us to the Citadel, where we have drinks, which he refuses to allow us to pay for. En route back our taxi driver stops to pick up a friend who perches on the drivers seat (next to the driver), hanging out of the open door as we weave amongst the traffic!

A long day and a warm welcome to Syria.

Day 6 – Konya, Adana

The upside of not being sound asleep in a sleeping compartment is witnessing a beautiful sunrise.

Passing through small Turkish towns solar water heating is noticeably commonplace. The tanks are located above the collectors so that the heat is circulated thermosyphonically, i.e. without need for an electric pump.

There is also lots of evidence of irrigation for agriculture. I wonder why the sprinklers are being used during the day when evaporation losses are higher.

We arrive in to Konya about an hour late and find a cafe with power and wi-fi so that we can check emails. I have a quick, fruitless search for the Mevlana Museum former lodge of the whirling dervishes. I do discover more solar water heating; in apartment blocks each unit has its own individual system.

Waiting at the station. The train arrives an hour and a half late. It is modern but traditional touches include squat toilets and ‘street traders’ selling lemon juicers, pretzels, apples and figs.

We pass through more farmed fields and I wonder what proportion of water is lost to evaporation in these irrigation troughs.

The train passes through spectacular mountain scenery before descending on to the plain and arriving in Adana about two hours late.

We take a taxi to the hotel. The driver’s eyesight is so bad he has to get out and use the headlamp to read the piece of paper with the hotel name on it!

Day 5 – Istanbul

We welcome in the new day at Svilengrad in Bulgaria, during a two-hour stop. Departing at 0024 we reach the border station, Kapitan Andreevo I think, at 0130, where we have our passports checked by the Bulgarian authorities.

Eventually we cross the border in to Turkey and at around 0230 arrive at Kapikule, where we have to have disembark, to queue first for a visa and then to have the visa stamped. At 0400 we are back on the train but have to wait until the passports are inspected at about 0445 before we can attempt to sleep again.

 

Istanbul Sirceki station, the end of the line…

…just a short walk to the ferry terminals, from where the boats to the Asia depart.

We arrive in to Istanbul about an hour and a half after the scheduled time of 0825, to discover that the Istanbul Adana sleeper train is completely full. A helpful local advises us to catch an earlier sleeper train as far as Konya, where we can wait for the Adana train that we intended to travel on (it being less busy on this stretch).

The power had gone off the previous evening and our cameras, phones and laptops were all in need of some juice. We find a boutique hotel near the station with very helpful staff, who bring us coffee, allow us to recharge and use the wi-fi, and refuse to accept any payment.

Having less time than we had hoped for in Istanbul. we don’t have time to look at one of the new generation of ‘green’ buildings, such as the R&D and technological centre for a private telecommunications company at the Tübitak Marmara Research Center Zone, designed by Erginoglu & Calislar Architects.

A new rail tunnel under the Bosphorus is currently under construction but for now a short ferry ride is required to cross to Asia. This ship’s cargo appears to be six huge wind turbine blades. In the background the Bosphorus Bridge connects Europe and Asia.

Haydarpasa station, from where we take the 1920 to Konya. The sleeper compartments are all full so we have to make do with Pullman seats, which doesn’t make for a great night’s sleep.